


as real as possible

by mildlydiscouraging



Series: in every universe [5]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: 2009, Long-Distance Friendship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Platonic or Romantic: You Decide, Prompt Fill, Skype
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4813802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlydiscouraging/pseuds/mildlydiscouraging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(originally posted 6/7/15 <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/4271898/chapters/9705051/">here</a>)</p><p>He ends up changing his outfit seven times and taking two showers because his hair just won’t do the thing he wants it to. Apparently he stress-showers now. He’s really stressed.</p><p><b>39</b>. long distance relationship au</p>
            </blockquote>





	as real as possible

**Author's Note:**

> _[Anonymous asked](http://moonfullofstars.tumblr.com/post/123349968943/): d+p with 39 as real as possible_

The first time they Skype, Dan spends four hours getting ready. It’s a weekend, so he has nothing else to do besides this, and the nervousness completely overtakes him. He ends up changing his outfit seven times and taking two showers because his hair just won’t do the thing he wants it to. Apparently he stress-showers now. He’s really stressed.

Half an hour before Phil said he would call him, Dan forces himself to stop fiddling with his hair and debating between the same three shirts over and over again, instead flopping down on his bed and looking for something to do.

He goes on Twitter, but the first thing he sees is something Phil’s tweeted and it just gets him all worked up again, so that’s out. YouTube, nope, Phil’s there too. MySpace, oh, there’s that band Phil recommended he listen to.

He’s starting to get a bit worried about how much Phil has completely infiltrated his life when the little Skype window pops up with a call from “Phil Lester ^_^” and his breathing gets uneven again. As scared as he is, obviously he still presses accept. Phil is about the best thing he has going for him right now and it would be more than a shame to ruin it.

The connection is grainy and stutters every thirty seconds, but it’s Phil on his screen and Phil talking directly to him, so Dan couldn’t care less about how he probably looks to him.

<+><+><+>

“Is today the day I convince you to come visit me?”

Dan groans and almost rolls off his bed. Skyping has become a daily thing for them and ever since around the third time they talked, Phil had at least mentioned the possibility of Dan coming to visit him.

“Look,” his voice is tinny in the headphones Dan dug out from under his bed when he realized it was one in the morning, “all I’m saying is there’s gonna be a couple days in October that my parents are gone and you could come stay with me and I could show you all the best places in the city and we can play video games all day and…”

“Did you already buy me tickets?”

“They’re in the mail.”

<+><+><+>

Meeting in person is a whole other kind of stress. Instead of spending his last hours changing clothes every two minutes, Dan is sitting on a train in mostly silence. He had been listening to music on his phone for the first two hours, but he was preserving the last of his battery in case something went terribly wrong.

The station is ridiculously crowded, but Phil is abnormally tall and he’s almost a full head taller than the rest of the people so Dan spots him right away. He must be harder to spot, since Phil doesn’t see him until Dan is right in front of him.

When Phil actually sees him,  _really_ sees him, in the real world, it’s even more than Dan thought it would be. More exciting, more exhilarating, more of any adjective he could think of.

Phil is taller than Dan expected, and his eyes are even weirder and prettier in person, and Dan finds himself throwing his arms around him before either can say anything. Phil hugs him back just as hard, saying something that sounds like it might be a “hello” but is mostly just a laugh. He smells like warmth and boy and all Dan can think of is how much he never wants to let go.

Then Phil steps back and takes Dan’s face in his hands, smiling and rambling about something, and Dan changes his mind.

<+><+><+>

“Is today the day I convince you to come back?”

His laptop is perched on his bed and he knows he’s out of the frame, searching for something under his bed that he was going to show Phil, so Dan allows himself the blinding, nervous smile he’s been trying to hold in ever since he got home. He’s tearing up just a little, embarrassingly happy, and he wipes it away before returning to look at the screen.

“Miss me already?” He asks it flirtatiously, but the nod accompanied by a small, sad smile he gets in return is too real to ignore. Settling back on his bed, Dan pulls the laptop closer and gently touches the image of Phil on it. “I miss you, too.”

Phil’s hand gets blurry and out of focus, like he’s doing the same thing on his own end. “I’m seeing you on Halloween, right?”

“Yeah,” Dan laughs and rolls his eyes, “I can’t wait to stand in a field with a bunch of strangers all day.”

“You’ll always have me.” Phil apparently has a habit of making ordinary things more real than they need to be.

“Always?” Dan repeats. “Promise?”

Phil nods ardently. “Cross my heart, hope to die. We can shake on it later, if you want to.”

“Yeah, alright.”

**Author's Note:**

> you want real as possible? i’ll give you real as possible. (*chanting* cliche af cliche af cliche af)
> 
> prompt me here or on tumblr if you wanna see more of these!!
> 
> tumblr @[dweebhowell](http://dweebhowell.tumblr.com)


End file.
